The Evangelist of Entrepreneurship

Carl J. Schramm

Can you be an entrepreneur the right way, at the right time?

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“Burn the Business Plan” explains that the importance of a business plan is only one of the many misconceptions about starting a company. Another is the myth of the kid genius—that all entrepreneurs are young software prodigies. In fact, the average entrepreneur is thirty-nine years old and has worked in corporate America for at least a decade.

Burn the Business Plan tells stories of successful entrepreneurs in a variety of fields. It shows how knowledge, passion, determination, and a willingness to experiment and innovate are vastly more important than financial skill.

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Book Reviews

“New businesses are about great ideas, not great plans. Schramm tells it as it really happens.”

Mitch LoweCo-Founder Netflix • CEO MoviePass

“Cerner, now with 25,000 associates, started with conversations over a picnic table in a public park. We never had a business plan. This book tells the real story of why most companies begin. If there is one book that aspiring entrepreneurs should read, this is it!”

Cliff IlligCo-Founder, Cerner Corporation

“Based on data and experience rather than hype, Burn the Business Plan is a timely antidote to the Silicon Valley mythology of startup wonder kids. I found this book deeply inspiring and confidence-building, and think all entrepreneurs, new and experienced, should read it.”

Steve WatkinsFounder of Lipomatics Technologies and Verso Biosciences

“Required reading for those who want to learn the real entrepreneurial process. It obliterates the useless conventional wisdom urged upon aspiring entrepreneurs of writing business plans and focusing on venture capital. This book, filled with stories of entrepreneurs just like you, is for the 99 percent of people who dream of starting a business but can’t find a practical roadmap.”

Eugene FitzgeraldProfessor of Engineering, MIT; Founder, AmberWave Systems Corporation and The Water Initiative; Co-founder of 4Power and New Silicon Corporation

“Business professors, many of whom never started a business, may hate this book because it overturns their view that writing a business plan is the key to success. Instead, this is a book filled with plain-spoken practical advice from one of the country’s most thoughtful experts on entrepreneurship who is both a scholar and a successful entrepreneur.”

Robert LitanDirector of Entrepreneurial Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

“No other book builds its advice for would-be entrepreneurs on such a solid factual basis. Readers can explore how to prepare themselves to become entrepreneurs long before starting a company, the best time in their careers to start, and what it will take to make their companies not just survive but flourish. This is the best book that anyone thinking about starting a business should read.”

Amar BhideProfessor Tufts University, Author of The Origins and Evolution of New Businesses

“This business book lives up to its billing...Schramm sets forth in real, practical, down-to-earth ways his knowledge of everything from debunking myths to identifying actions for success”

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Carl J Schramm, whom The Economist has called “the evangelist of entrepreneurship,” is the former president of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropy dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship. He is the co-creator of Global Entrepreneurship Week, which is now observed in 170 countries; he has served in major corporate roles, is a former entrepreneur, and is presently University Professor at Syracuse University.

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THE VIDEO SERIES

FAILED CITIES
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FAST CITIES

As of 2010 over half of the world’s population lives in cities. It is estimated that by 2050 this number will exceed 65 percent. This video series is a prelude for a broad consideration of various aspects of city life, paying particular attention to governmental theory, urban planning and architecture, economics, and civic morality.